Donuts (company)

Last updated

Donuts Inc.
Donuts-logo.png
Type of site
 Private
FoundedNovember 22, 2010 (2010-11-22)
Dissolved June 22, 2022 (2022-06-22)
Successor(s) Identity Digital
Headquarters Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Key peopleAkram Atallah, President and CEO
Industry Internet
URL https://donuts.domains/

Donuts Inc. was a domain name registrar and registry providing paid domain names under 270 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), as made possible by ICANN's gTLD expansion program, as well as 173 other TLDs including .au (ccTLD) and .org (gTLD managed by the Public Interest Registry), through its own registry status (for example, managing the .social gTLD) and contracts between its subsidiaries and other registries. [1]

It was co-founded in 2010 by Paul Stahura, Jonathon Nevett, Richard Tindal, and Daniel Schindler. [1] The company's headquarters are located in Bellevue, Washington. [2]

In July 2017, Donuts acquired Rightside, along with domain registrar Name.com. [3] [4] [5] [6]

On August 11, 2018, Donuts entered into an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Abry Partners. [7] [5] [8] [9]

In December 2020, Donuts acquired the registry division of Afilias, Inc., [10] [11] a registry, registrar and mobile software developer [12] headquartered outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In January 2021, Ethos Capital acquired Donuts after their failed bid to gain control over the .org internet domain. [13] [14]

In 2022, Afilias and Donuts Inc were merged under Identity Digital. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.org</span> Generic top-level domain

The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from organization. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by the Public Interest Registry since 2003. The domain was originally "intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else." It is commonly used by non-profit organizations, open-source projects, and communities, but is an open domain that can be used by anyone. The number of registered domains in org has increased from fewer than one million in the 1990s, to ten million in 2012, and held steady between ten and eleven million since then.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.info</span> Generic top-level domain

The domain name info is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. The name is derived from information, although registration requirements do not prescribe any particular purpose.

Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian publicly traded Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and incorporated in Pennsylvania, United States. The company is composed of three independent businesses: Tucows Domains, Ting Internet, and Wavelo.

AusRegistry was a Melbourne, Australia based company that specialised in domain name registry services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Generic top-level domain</span> Top level domain without country association.

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.vc</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

.vc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.io</span> Internet country-code top level domain for the British Indian Ocean Territory

The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .io is nominally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory. The domain is operated commercially by Afilias, a domain name registry subsidiary of Ethos Capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.lc</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Saint Lucia

.lc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Saint Lucia, sponsored by the University of Puerto Rico and created on September 3, 1991. The registry is operated by Afilias and markets towards companies structured as LCs, LLCs or PLCs due to the possibility of a domain hack, such as CompanyName.L.LC and supposedly better names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.mobi</span> Generic top-level Internet domain

The domain name mobi is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afilias</span> Web domain registration company

Afilias, Inc. was a US corporation that was the registry operator of the .info, .mobi and .pro top-level domain, service provider for registry operators of .org, .ngo, .lgbt, .asia, .aero, and a provider of domain name registry services for countries around the world, including .MN (Mongolia), .AG, .BM (Bermuda), .BZ (Belize), .AC, .GI (Gibraltar), .IO .ME (Montenegro), .PR, .SC, .SH, .VC, and .AU (Australia). Afilias also provided ancillary support to other domains, including .SG (Singapore), .LA (Laos), and .HN (Honduras). It was merged into Identity Digital in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webcentral Group</span> Australian digital services company

Webcentral, formerly known as Melbourne IT Group, is an Australian digital services provider. It is a publicly-traded company that was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in December 1999. It provides internet domain registration, email and office applications, cloud hosting, cloud services, 5G networks, managed services, IT services, DevOps security, and digital marketing. Founded in 1996, it was the first Australian domain name registrar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.web</span>

.web is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) that was created and assigned by an auction process to several bidding companies. It was awarded to Nu Dot Co LLC, which is primarily funded by Verisign.

Name.com is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company based in Denver, Colorado. The company sells DNS domains, web hosting, email services, SSL certificates, and other website products.

.music is a community-based top-level domain name (TLD) operated for the benefit of the global music community. It was one of the most highly contested new gTLDs, with eight applicants in contention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fadi Chehadé</span> American information technology executive

Fadi Chehadé is an information technology executive, founder of RosettaNet and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICANN. Through Ethos Capital, he unsuccessfully tried to gain control over the .org internet domain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Interest Registry</span>

Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in March 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniregistry</span> Domain name registrar

Uniregistry is a large retail domain name registrar and web services provider; as well as a domain name registry that administers generic top-level domains. In February 2013, the related company Uniregistrar Corporation became an ICANN-accredited registrar and launched under the licensed Uniregistry brand name in 2014. Uniregistry's acquisition by GoDaddy was announced in February 2020.

Ethos Capital is an American private equity investment firm founded in 2019 for the purpose of gaining control of the .org internet domain name and capitalizing upon it using a portfolio of data-monetization startups. Although that effort failed, company founders Erik Brooks and Fadi Chehadé went on to use the vehicle to buy domain name registrar Donuts and registry services provider Afilias from Abry Partners, where Brooks had been managing partner. In 2022, Afilias and Donuts were merged into a single company, Identity Digital.

Identity Digital Inc. is a company with affiliated entities that operate in the domain name industry, including a domain name registrar and registry services provider. The company acquired the registry operator and back-end registry services divisions of Afilias, Inc. in 2020. Both Donuts Inc. and Afilias Inc. were rebranded and brought under the single company brand name Identity Digital in 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 "Donuts Inc.'s major play for new Web domain names raises eyebrows". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Home". Donuts Inc. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  3. ↑ "The Cybersecurity 202: Internet domain names are ripe for scam during coronavirus crisis". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Donuts raises $110M in financing to buy Rightside". geekwire.com. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Domain name company Donuts Inc. is gobbled up by private equity firm". bizjournals.com. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Donuts raises $110M in financing to buy Rightside". bizjournals.com. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Anguilla, with its domain name, cashes in on a quirky trend". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Abry Partners Enters Into Agreement to Invest Majority Stake in Donuts Inc". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Tropical Breezes, Pristine Beaches and a Domain Name to Die For". The New York Times . Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Donuts Acquires Afilias". afilias.info. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Donuts Inc.'s Acquisition Of Afilias, Inc". globallegalchronicle.com. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Donuts Inc. to Acquire Afilias, Inc. - Donuts News". donuts.news. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Ethos Capital to Acquire Controlling Interest of Donuts Inc. - Donuts News". donuts.news. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Ethos Capital To Acquire Controlling Interest of Donuts Inc". ethoscapital.com. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  15. ↑ Allemann, Andrew (June 22, 2022). "Donuts rebrands to Identity Digital". Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
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